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ANKARA, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday told the US to stop deceiving Turkey and start cooperating, after Washington said it was concerned by the Turkish-led offensive on the Syrian city of Afrin.

Erdogans typically abrasive comments came after the US State Department reacted to the capture by Turkish forces of Afrin from Kurdish militia by sounding the alarm over the fate of civilians and looting.

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If we are strategic partners, you must respect us and you must work with us, Erdogan told Turkeys NATO ally during a speech to ruling party lawmakers in parliament.

He said that the US had carried out such a deception against Turkey by arming the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) militia, which had controlled the Afrin region.

Syrian Kurds, in the northern town of Afrin, during the March 1, 2018 funeral of fighters from the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) militia and the Womens Protection Units (YPJ), killed in clashes in the Kurdish enclave in northern Syria on the border with Turkey. (AFP/Ahmad Shafie Bilal)

Turkish troops supporting Ankara-backed Syrian opposition fighters captured Afrin city during a lightning assault on Sunday, with the YPG largely withdrawing without a fight.

Turkey says the YPG is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency inside Turkey and is proscribed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

But US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on Monday said the US was deeply concerned after the assault triggered an exodus of Kurdish civilians from the city.

Nauert said Washington was also concerned over reports of looting inside the city of Afrin, which AFP reporters had witnessed.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, August 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Erdogan hit back at the spokeswomans comments: Where were you when we shared our concerns? When we said lets clean terrorists together here, where were you?

Turkey had previously suggested that it could clear the Islamic State extremist group from Syria with the US, but Washington chose to work with the YPG.

On the one hand, you will say to Turkey you are our strategic partner and then after you are going to cooperate with a terror organisation? The reality is clear, he said.

Relations between Turkey and the US have been strained over multiple issues including Washingtons move to supply the YPG with weaponry and the failure to extradite the Muslim preacher accused of ordering the July 2016 attempted overthrow of Erdogan.

You attempted to deceive us. It was such a deception, I tell you, you sent 5,000 trucks of weapons there. You sent 2,000 ammunitions cargo there, Erdogan said.

But the president said Turkey was seizing the ammunition little by little.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures, as he attends a national youth foundation event in Ankara, Turkey, on February 1, 2018. (Yasin Bulbul/ Pool Photo via AP)

We asked for weapons with our money, you didnt give it to us. But you gave terrorists weapons and ammunition for free. How is this partnership? How is this solidarity? he thundered.

But Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier said meetings with the US had not stopped. They continue. In the coming days, the foreign ministry undersecretary (Umit Yalcin) will go to the US, Cavusoglu said, quoted by NTV broadcaster.

Link:
Erdogan tells US to end 'deception' on Syria | The Times of ...

Turkeys military operation in Syria will target other Kurdish-held towns and may even spill over into Iraq President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced just a day after pro-Turkish forces seized Afrin.

The controversial cross-border offensive will go on until the terror corridor through Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tell Abyad, Ras al-Ayn, Qamishli has been wiped out, Erdogan said, speaking in the presidential complex in Ankara on Monday.

Erdogan hinted that the Turkish military operation may even expand into neighboring Iraq, if needed, in an effort to eliminate forces loyal to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which Ankara has designated as a terrorist organization.

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We can suddenly come over one night in Iraq's Sinjar and eliminate PKK terrorists there, Erdogan said, according to Turkish state media.

On January 20, Turkey launched a cross-border offensive into Syria with an aim to dislodge Kurdish terrorists from Afrin. The assault, codenamed Operation Olive Branch, has strained relations between Ankara and Washington. The Kurdish YPG are key US allies in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, but Ankara views them as an offshoot of the terrorist-designated Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The Turkish leaders announcement comes just one day after the Turkish military, aided by its Free Syrian Army (FSA) allies, seized the Syrian city of Afrin. Erdogan said that capturing Afrin was a comma and God willing, a full stop will come next. However, he stressed that Turkey was not invading Syria.

Our intention is not to invade, but to carry out operations to cleanse terrorists and eliminate terrorist threats to our country, he said, as cited by Rudaw.

Thousands have reportedly fled their homes in the Afrin region in the wake of Turkeys offensive. After announcing the citys capture, Erdogan vowed to protect Afrins residents. However, Kurdish leaders have accused the Turkish military and its proxies of committing massacres and ethnic cleansing.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes Turkish forces will have completely encircled Afrin by Wednesday evening, a presidential source said, clarifying his earlier comments in a speech indicating the Kurdish-held Syrian city would fall by then.

"In the president's speech the sentence 'I hope that Afrin will have completely fallen by the evening' should be understood as 'the encirclement will have been completed by the evening'," said a presidential source in a message to media, asking not to be named.

Erdogan had earlier stated in a speech at the presidential palace in Ankara that Afrin would fall by the evening to the Turkish army and Syrian allies, a claim rejected by the Syrian Kurds.

"We have got a little bit closer to Afrin. I hope that Afrin will, God willing, have completely fallen by the evening," Erdogan said in the speech.

Afrin city is the key target in Turkey's seven-week operation Olive Branch launched on January 20 and aimed at ousting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) from the Afrin region of northern Syria.

A YPG spokesman accused Erdogan of "daydreaming" in the speech.

The Turkish army and its Syrian allies, who had been looking to complete the encirclement in a two-pronged movement from the east and the west, had Afrin city surrounded on Monday, the army said on Tuesday.

"The routes used to the east by the terrorists to enter and go out of the region will be closed today or tomorrow, God willing," Erdogan added in the speech.

Turkey regards the YPG as a terror group and a branch of a Kurdish militant movement in Turkey that has waged an insurgency for decades.

But the YPG has been a key ally of the United States in the fight against jihadists in Syria and Turkey's operation against it has raised tensions with Ankara's NATO allies in Washington and Europe.

Erdogan has repeatedly said that after taking Afrin, Turkey's offensive would expand to key border towns controlled by the YPG right up to the Iraqi frontier.

These would include Kurdish-held towns such as Manbij where US forces have a presence, raising the risk of a confrontation with Turkey's NATO ally.

"We will cleanse Manbij and then in the same way will cleanse east of the Euphrates right up to the Iraqi border," he said.

Erdogan also raised the prospect of a cross-border operation in northern Iraq where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades long struggle against the Turkish army, has its rear bases.

"We are surveying the terror nests in northern Iraq at every opportunity," said Erdogan. "Soon we will bring these down on the heads of the terrorists in the strongest way."

Last Update: Wednesday, 14 March 2018 KSA 14:51 - GMT 11:51

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IN TURKEY under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the tweet has been turned into a crime, and a troubled democracy is being turned into a dictatorship. Gradually but inexorably, a nation that once aspired to be an exemplar of enlightened moderation is being transformed by Mr. Erdogan into a dreary totalitarian prison. In the latest setback, last week, 23 journalists were sentenced to prison for between two and seven years on patently ridiculous charges that they were members of a terrorist organization and had tweeted about it. Two others were convicted on lesser charges of supporting a terrorist organization.

Mr. Erdogan, the target of a failed coup attempt in July 2016, has embarked on a campaign of repression against perceived enemies in the press, government, academia and law enforcement, among other pillars of Turkish society. More than 60,000 people have been arrested and 150,000 forced from their jobs. Mr.Erdogans prime targets are the perceived followers of the opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, who now lives in Pennsylvania. Mr. Erdogan claims Mr. Gulen once his ally in Turkish politics had incited the coup attempt, hence the charge of a terrorist organization. Mr. Gulen denies it.

Turkey once had a robust, independent press, but Mr. Erdogan has waged a multifront campaign: closing media outlets, forcing others into new ownership, and using friendly judges and prosecutors. In the latest cases, some reporters and editors were convicted for what they said on Twitter. A lawyer representing two journalists, Baris Topuk, said at an earlier hearing: In our opinion, the name of the organization in which the defendants are accused of being members should be TTO: Tweetist Terrorist Organization. There are no weapons or bombs in the case, only news articles and tweets. Ali Akkus, who was news editor of the now-defunct Zaman daily, had said on Twitter, No dictator can silence the press. The use of the word dictator was singled out by a prosecutor in the charges against him. Mr. Akkus received a sentence of seven years and six months in prison.

Cuma Ulus, the editor of the daily Millet, got the same sentence and declared earlier during the proceedings: I have been a journalist for 21 years. I stood against terrorism and violence, [and] defended expression of freedom during all my life. In the indictment, prosecutors cited three tweets and 22 retweets, accusing him of stirring up frenzy against the government.

Separately, 17 current and former writers, cartoonists and executives from the Cumhuriyet newspaper are also on trial. Mr. Erdogan is reportedly planning an assault on Internet broadcasting and free expression online, as well.

The show trials underscore how far Turkey has fallen from Western norms of democracy, human rights and rule of law. Mr. Erdogan is happily marching alongside Russia, China, Egypt, Cuba and others where legitimacy to rule rests on coercion and thought control. Mr. Erdogans dictatorship must be called out for what it is. Even if he covers his ears, the United States and other nations must protest, and loudly.

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The 6-year-old child who cried in front of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a global sensation. Erdogan spotted the weeping girl wearing a military uniform during an address at his partys congress last week, brought her onto the stage, and told her that if she died as a martyr, her coffin would be covered with the Turkish flag she held in her pocket. You are ready for anything, arent you? the Islamist strongman asked. The terrified child managed to utter yes, though it was hard to hear it through her sobs.

Nationalism is running high in Turkey. Ankara is at war with Kurdish insurgents in the countrys southeast, and across the border in Syria since January. Moreover, Turkey has been under a state of emergency since mid-2016, when a rogue group within the military attempted a coup against Erdogans government, killing some 200 civilians. Amid the growing number of enemies at home and abroad, Erdogan has done his best to promote militarism among the populace, including by openly encouraging the formation of civilian militias claiming to defend his governmentand the Turkish nation.

Children have not been immune to these efforts. Over the last year, the Turkish government sent ministers to facilitate militaristic student parades, while Turkeys state-run religious affairs directorate has been publishing its own propaganda materials, to teach Turkish children about the grandeurs of martyrdom. Turkish students, including kindergarteners, around the country have been made to conduct military marches and recite ultranationalist poems at schools. Some state-run schools even replaced their recess bells with Ottoman military marches to raise students national consciousness. One 17-year-old commented, sometimes we get so excited that we march like the military during recess.

These are all extensions of Erdogans decade-old efforts to raise a pious and zealous generation of Turks that exalts martyrdom to defend the new Turkey that the president has worked tirelessly to construct. Erdogans shocking 2008 request from Turkish women to produce three to five children eacha request he backed up with financial incentives in 2015is part and parcel of this strategy. With Turkeys state-backed Islamic vocational schools proliferating throughout the country, Ankara also amended student-placement procedures to automatically enroll studentsincluding non-Sunni and non-Muslim onesinto these institutions. Tellingly, the presidents son Bilal, in his address to students at one such vocational school in January, told the teenagers, You are Erdogans generation.

These efforts, along with the relentless propaganda of pro-government Turkish media, paid off in July 2016, when groups of vigilantes heeded Erdogans televised callechoed by the mosquesto take to Istanbuls streets and resist the coup. While the massive public demonstrations promoting democracy and denouncing a military junta may have been a sign of a maturing civil society, images of vigilante groups physically abusing captured soldiers on Istanbul streets appalled manyand terrified roughly half the electorate that does not support Erdogan. Since then, the rise of civilian pro-Erdogan militias has made headlines in opposition media and stirred heated debates in parliament. Erdogan, meanwhile, decreed impunity for all the groups who partook in the resistance to the coup.

U.S. officials are watching with growing concerns. The Turkish government has stirred and sponsored anti-Americanism, and this is a major motivating force for these vigilantes. Ankara blames Washington for both the failed putschwhich has all but become the founding myth of Erdogans new Turkish republicand the rise of Kurdish self-rule in northern Syria. Erdogans ministers and media continuously slander American citizens as coup-plotters and depict the Turkish war against Kurdish militants in Syria as a fight against pro-Kurdish Americans. Most Turkish people, opinion polls show, now consider the United States the top threat to their national security. And the so-called peoples militias appear ready, Erdogan-willing, to face any enemy of the nation as proclaimed by the all-powerful president. Erdogan has also promised to deliver an Ottoman slap to the U.S. and bury U.S. special forces soldiers operating in northeast Syria.

The challenge for the U.S.-Turkish relationship is that it cannot survive in the long run if the bulk of the Turkish population sees the United States in such adversarial terms. Moreover, the importance of Turkey to the United States has long been as an exemplar of majority Muslim society that was making its way along a long road of democratization and meeting the standards of rule of law and human rights that are associated with the European Union and NATO. Erdogans rhetoric sounds more like one might expect from a state sponsor of terrorism than a sound democratic ally. Indeed, Turkey is moving in the direction of an autocratic, militarized, semi-Islamist dictatorship rather than a liberal democracy.

American officials who write off the presidents anti-American rhetoric as Erdogan pandering to his base fail to understand that demonizing the United States is an integral part of Erdogans agenda. Only tough love will put the U.S.-Turkish relationship on a steadier long-term course. The state of Turkeys democracy and the governments shameless promotion of anti-Americanism must be addressed if we are to salvage this relationship. We can no longer postpone the day of reckoning. If we dont address these problems now, we will share in the blame for what went wrong.

Eric S. Edelman is a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Merve Tahiroglu is a research analyst.

Link:
Erdogan's Rising Islamist Militarism | The Weekly Standard